Valentine’s Day. All over social media there’s love in the air and chatter about what nice things we can should do (and buy!) for the people that we love. But behind all the lovey-dovey talk, there’s a very important person we keep forgetting about.
Ourself.
The mothers of the world work so hard to care for their families 24/7 yet all too often forget to plan in anything nice for themselves. Even just to take a breather.
Quite a while back I touched on why moms should take a time out. It’s definitely time for a recap and to fill you in a little more about practicing self care.
But wait! Isn’t self care really just being selfish?!?
In case you’re a little unsure, keep reading to find out about what self care means, why it is so important- yes, YOU TOO should be practicing self care- and a list of simple, yet beneficial, ways you too can take a time out to care for yourself.
Christmas
is over and New Year’s Day is upon
us. People the world over are reflecting on the past year, preparing celebrations
for New Year’s Eve and dreaming
up New Year’s resolutions
and goals for the coming 12 months.
Not only will
this be the start of a new year, 2020. But it is also the start of a new decade!
Wowsers! Can you remember what you were doing 10 years ago? A helluva lot can
happen in 10 years!!! Can you remember even 20 years ago, when it was a new
year, a new decade and a new millennium all wrapped up in one fateful night?
(Remember the much-feared Y2K bug that was surely going to bring the world to
it’s knees… but then didn’t?!?).
New Year’s resolutions are always seen as
being this big thing. Another 12 months full of endless possibilities! New
year, new beginnings, new habits…
I find the idea
of New Year’s resolutions
to be a little bit wishy-washy. Sort of, “I am sure I want to go to the
gym more this year” or “I really want to stress less
this year”. Admirable
ideas? Absolutely! But with no plan behind those vague statements to support your
resolutions, it’s no shock when
you can’t actually say with
clarity at the end of the year that you succeeded. Perhaps making an entire
year dependent on some well-meaning resolutions made whilst tipsy on the last
day of the year is not the best way to go about reaching your goals in the next
one…
A big hello to my fantastic Famtastic fans! Wherever you are in the world, I hope that you have had a good week. We are well and truly back to everyday life after our brilliant adventures in Croatia. Our holiday was certainly memorable and like I said last week, all 5 of us remained sane along the way. (Read here for my tips on packing for a long road trip with kids!!) It’s nice to just be around home again after such a long road trip.
Nevertheless, this week
I have found myself in a real funk. And no, I don’t mean funk and jive and groovy
‘60s music. I mean, I’m in a lousy mood. And I am not here to bring you all
down with me. But I gotta speak what’s on my mind. Saddened, flat, down and grieving.
In the last weeks, within our wider circle of family and friends there have been not 1, not 2, but 3 members pass away. Three! Old, young, sick, healthy, foreseeable, shocking. Whatever. All of the above. And each one has been so intensely sad in their own way. In the same time period there has been some major setbacks for a number of other family and friends with life-threatening health conditions. In addition, several of these people live back in Australia, so it’s impossible for me to attend funerals or speak with loved ones face-to-face. All of which makes it even harder for this grieving expat to work through her feelings.
Really, it’s all just a
bit too much. ☹ How does one even begin to deal with so much grief?
Hey! Just like I
promised last week. Here I am, back again! For a multitude of reasons I really
needed that week’s break. But it was good for me. Now I can share with you all
the good stuff that has been keeping me so busy these past weeks!
The sun has been shining here, with a few gorgeously puffy clouds gently sweeping across the blue skies. And we have been having lovely summery temperatures which I have been hankering for for months now (well, except for the 5 week break in Australia over Christmas 😉). But not counting that…
Now, I don’t know about
you, but all this amazing weather makes me want to skip and twirl and grin
wildly in the sunshine. Of course there are always the complainers who bemoan
that at 25 degrees is it already “too hot”. Me? I’m just getting started!
I thought that it could
be fun to share a few of the things that we have been doing around here these
past couple of weeks. Perhaps you will find a couple of ideas that you and your
family could try out now that the warmer weather and longer daylight hours are here
(in the northern hemisphere at least). Or maybe it will inspire you to get outside
and discover your own adventures!
Hello World! Everything’s Famtastic is here! I hope that all is well in your part of the world, wherever that may be.
Looking in the calendar
this past week I really just noticed how quickly this year is flying by. I
think that’s a grown-up thing, right? As a kid it feels like you wait sooo
looong for everything but as an adult *poof* and another year is over.
And then I realised
something else. A couple of days away marks the one year anniversary since I
had my cornea transplant. And that is even more unbelievable than how quickly the
flowers have been blooming this spring!. A whole year since I received the
ultimate gift: a cornea from an anonymous donor. ONE YEAR!
I talked about the subject of organ and tissue donation a while back here. I wondered whether any of you out there who might be needing a transplant of some sort just needed to hear that someone else has gone through such surgery and come out stronger on the other side.
Given that my own
anniversary of being a recipient is coming up, I thought it might be
interesting to share with you a bit more about my personal experience (skipping
the more graphic details, I promise 😉).
Hello everybody! Good
to have you here! Many countries around the world celebrated Easter last
weekend and most children have been home from school for a week or 2. Did you
have a nice Easter? If you have children, have you all been busy enjoying the
school holidays? Got any chocolate left? 😉
Our holidays have been pretty good. I wrote last week about (amongst other things) the almost non-stop entertainment our daughters were enjoying. What, between cooking classes and church groups and parties and sleepovers, I hardly saw them at all in the week leading up to Easter!
Our Easter weekend itself
was lovely. Plenty of gloriously warm sun and blue skies, making the outdoor
Easter egg hunt an urgent affair. Take too long to look for your eggs and you
would have ended up with a basket of hot chocolate! We went a-visiting (to my
mother-in-law) for a couple of days and then back home received our own visitors
(from my Australian family) for a couple of days. A perfect weekend all round,
if I do say so myself!
Happy Easter message c/o Miss 10.
Remember how I had been
fantasising about enjoying some good quality dark chocolate (which I did indeed
receive 😉) and a glass of chilled sauvignon blanc? Yes? Just
one stumbling block though…
Hi Folks! I had been intending on writing a lovely post this week about the fun of school holidays. The problem is, that I am not having fun. I am sick. Fever, exhaustion, aches and all.
Hope you have had a great weekend wherever you are. See you next week! (Sorry)
Hi there! How has your week been? Did you try out those sewing instructions I shared last week? How did it go? Our week here has been a bit of a mixed bag. Master 5 has a nasty cold which has left him with a mild temperature, a few meltdowns and a helluva lot of snot. Our ambitions to tidy our household a’la KonMari have temporarily stalled. Hello! Lack of time! BUT we did make a trip to IKEA and stocked up on approximately 1000 storage tubs to assist us as we sort through the rumble that exists in a few corners of our house.
One thing that I have been getting excited about this coming week is an upcoming girls’ night. Huzzah! Catching up with friends is one thing that I DEFINITELY wish would happen more often. If only it could happy more often. Once again: Hello! Lack of time!
One of the lovely
ladies I am actually meeting up with recently came across an article (in a German
magazine) about why women should meet up with their friends more often. And
since I, of course, agree 100%, I thought I would look into this some more and
share some thoughts with you all today.
I mean, what could be
better than being told that you SHOULD go out with friends more often?!?
How are you going? Have
you had a great week? Me? I’m doing OK. The weather is trying to improve- hooray
for sun!- and my kids complained their way through the one *sweltering* 20°C (68F) day we had. I also had to chase up my
doctor the other day to find out why my knee was still hurting. Turns out I may
just have myself a torn ligament. So it’s off for an MRI next week for me. Oh
yay. Wish me luck folks!
But for now, I get to focus on something else. I get to enjoy some time to myself. Alone. And that makes me just a little bit immensely excited and happy like a bouncy little puppy dog.
Let me start by saying:
I love my husband and I love my kids. A lot.
I also love time spent
alone. This is not the same as being lonely. That for me is a state of feeling
sad because nobody is around. But sometimes I CRAVE time alone. I want a quiet
house. I want the house to stay as tidy as it was this morning. An hour ago.
Heck, even 10 minutes ago!
I want the chance to do
whatever I want. If that means tidying up without interruption or turning
around to discover a brand new mess, so be it. If that means dancing around my
kitchen to will.i.am, then bring on the dance party! Maybe I’d nap, or catch up
on some reading while sitting outside in the sunshine, or lose myself in
Pintrest, or drink a couple of glasses of Sauvignon Blanc, or start sewing new
clothes for my kids, or cook up a meal of linguine with prawns (that would be
“shrimp” for you North Americans 😉) that I know no one else in my family would dare let
pass their lips, or… I’m getting dizzy just fantasising about the
possibilities! *sigh*
You see, we mums are
NOT robots that can function caring for our families eternally, without pausing
to care for ourselves. It does NOT mean we love our families less, or are
neglecting them. But there are only 24 hours in a day. And if all your waking
hours are spent caring for, cooking for and feeding, transporting, disciplining
and entertaining your kids, there is not a moment left to care for YOURSELF.
And if you don’t look after yourself, who will?
Do you have sometimes have days when you feel overwhelmed by life? By your household? By your kids? C’mon, you can be honest here! Raise your hand!
**raises hand**
Of course everyone has tough days. Anyone who denies ever having a rough day (or week, or perhaps month) is kidding themselves and fooling no one. Life throws us lots of opportunities. And sometimes life just throws lemons. (yeah yeah, we’ve all heard it before, make lemonade, yada yada).
Anyway… when life at home with kids, or a partner, or a barnyard full of animals, seems gruelling, repetitive, thankless, boring, frustrating, uncontrollable- shall I stop now?!- it can all seem a little, well, too much.
What can you do? The #1
thing to remember: You are not alone!
Even in stress, you are not alone!
You are not the only one facing this crisis, this mood, this shitty day. Say it to yourself: “I am not alone”. Say it again. Say it a thousand times if you need to. Because it is true and you should believe it. What are the chances that
